Addiction is a Disease

you can beat this addiction it’s not a
disease but I understand this dude’s heart is in the right place you want
people to stop being addicted to drugs but the problem is is that addiction is
a disease and this video is causing a lot of problems and it’s one of the main
reasons why there’s a stigma in this world today my name is Chris I’m with
the rewired soul I’m about to explain to you why addiction is in fact a disease
based on science based on facts and based on the truth no I’m not going to
show you any sympathy no why because you don’t have a disease you have an
addiction you have a weakness you chose to put that needle in your arm and shoot
up that heroin you chose to snort atlanta cocaine you don’t have a disease
you’re just weak when we talk about the choices that these people are making it
is inaccurate there’s a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex which
sits right here okay so what happens is is that that prefrontal cortex which is
responsible for things like logical decision making like making correct
choices self-awareness which is why so many people are in denial about their
addiction and it also regulates the flow of dopamine which comes from the limbic
system we get dopamine from just about anything that gives us pleasure and we
need that as part of our survival mechanisms right one of the issues is is
that that dopamine system is not being regulated properly and somebody who has
an addiction you don’t have to believe me the studies are there you can go to
the National Institute on Drug Abuse these are very real studies that are out
there they have actual brain scans that will show you how my brain is different
than most of the brains out there addiction affects one in every 10 people
who have a legitimate brain disorder now the other issue is that this gentleman
is saying that it’s not a disease but I do not think that he knows what actually
classifies any illness as a disease in order to be classified as a disease all
I have to do is meet a certain amount of criteria one is that an organism we just
talked about how the brain is different two is that I have diagnoseable symptoms
if you check the dsm-5 which is a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual which
they used to diagnose brain disorders there are actual diagnosable symptoms
for addiction hence addiction is in fact classified as
a disease we got to understand that videos like this this thing has 19
million views that has half a million shares we have to understand that videos
like this are shaming people with addiction could you imagine going into
the cancer ward and telling people that these people made a choice or if you
went to diabetics and said that they made the choice they were eating far too
much sugar think about that I work in the field with these people who are
watching this video and feeling completely beat down by it especially
because so many people are sharing it just because of a lack of knowledge and
a lack of awareness we need to think before we perpetuate these parts of
stigmas as long as the stigmas are out there people are going to hide in the
shadows they’re going to feel like they’re not
worth saving because the wrong narrative is out there that these people have a
choice of whether or not they can be addicted again this is Chris bootay
with the rewired soul calm feel free to follow me on Twitter
among Instagram and on Facebook alright I’ll see you next time